In the production of treated and/or purified water, for example ultra-pure water for laboratory use, several components are generally used in conjunction to provide the desired water quality. Some of these components may be used in parallel or in series, and some are more critical than others to the final water quality. Nevertheless, the full and correct performance of all the components is generally essential to guarantee the treated water quality.
To ensure that the final water quality is of the required standard, quality monitors are usually installed either within or external to the water purification unit to monitor key water parameters on an ongoing basis. Typically these will include, but are not limited to, resistivity, conductivity, temperature, Total Organic Carbon (TOC), flow rate, etc.
Notwithstanding the above monitoring, for certain applications, industry regulations require traceability of components that affect the final water quality. Typically, this information is required by companies producing pharmaceuticals or similar products. Currently, this is generally carried out by manual logging of component information.
Meanwhile, components can often be installed and/or used in more than one position in a water treatment apparatus. In other situations, optimum performance of the apparatus can be obtained by using the components in different positions at different instances. However, incorrect performance and/or positioning cannot currently be prevented, which may seriously undermine the water quality and production.
Additionally, it is a desire to know how much capacity or operational lifetime is retained within a component. However, as most components are sealed units, this is impossible to forecast before the component suddenly expires or breaks down, again potentially significantly affecting the water production. This may cause inconvenience to the user who would often prefer to schedule component changes at specific times.
It is an intention of the present invention to obviate the above disadvantages.